“Bingo. Then the dumbass had to go and invite her to the wedding to makeyoujealous.” She leveled a finger at me.
“That had nothing to do with me,” I protested, and my friends snorted.
“Please,” Reagan said with a light laugh. “Even as a relative newcomer to this family, I knew it hadeverythingto do with you.”
I opened my mouth to protest further, but I closed it again. Honestly, I’d never stopped to consider that before. I’d spent over a decade and a half assuming the door between me and Lane was welded shut and buried deep beneath the ground in some far-flung locale. The idea that he’d been using her to get a reaction out of me was kind of hot.
It also elicited another surge of sympathy for Addie. She didn’t deserve that, even if she was a psycho.
“Then Lane got shot,” Aspen continued. “And Trey and I think that was a trigger—pun intended,” she smirked, “for Addie. Especially when, in the aftermath, her worst fear of Lane rejecting her came true.”
“And now you think she’s coming after me in some sort of misguided attempt to get him back?”
Aspen nodded. “We think she just wants to get you out of the way so she has a clear path back to Lane.”
“That’s insane,” I said, though weakly. In truth, it made a lot of sense.
People had certainly done crazier things in the name of love.
My man was proof.
“Okay,” I said, leaning toward Aspen. “I need you to tell meeverythingyou know.”
thirty-seven
. . .
LANE
Sutton’s carwasn’t in the garage when I got home, so she must’ve still been at the ranch. I pulled out my phone and shot her a quick text, asking when she’d be back, but before I could close the door and head inside, she pulled in.
I waited for her to park and get out, then we went inside together.
She was practically vibrating, and I could tell something was on her mind.
“What’s going on?” I asked, stopping her in the middle of the living room, lightly gripping her upper arms and turning her toward me.
For a beat, she didn’t answer, instead gnawing on her bottom lip, eyes looking anywhere but at me. Mine scanned her face, searching for what exactly, I didn’t know.
“I’ve never asked before because I figured it wasn’t any of my business,” she started, “but…I need to know what happened with you and Addie.”
My brows drew together, but the lie fell easily from my mouth. “Nothing happened.”
Immediately, I wanted to take it back. Why the fuck was I lying? Sutton already knew the worst thing I’d ever done. This hardly cracked the top ten of my greatest hits of bad decisions.
Sutton sighed and stepped away from me, walking over to one of the chairs and sitting down, propping her elbows on her knees. Choosing the chair versus the couch was a tactical choice on her part, ensuring I couldn’t cuddle up next to her. I hated what the idea that she needed space for this conversation did to me.
“Lane,” she said, her tone imploring. “Somethinghappened. Otherwise, why would she warn me to stay away from you?”She has a point there. “And I can’t help thinkingeverythingthat has gone wrong since has her fingerprints all over it.”
“That’s not—” I started but bit off what I’d been about to say when she gave me a stern look.
Besides, this wasn’t the first time someone was coming to me with concerns about Addie. Maybe it was time to get past my biases and start taking the opinions of the people in my life seriously.
“We met on a case,” I started.
Sutton waved me off. “I know about that.”
“How?”
